Sound and vision

Mark Pappenheim's monthly look at the best classical DVDS

It was Sue Knussen's 1993 BBC/IMG TV film The Art of Conducting, recently reissued on Warner/Teldec DVD, that first gave many of us a chance to see rare archive footage of the legendary conductors of the 20th century in action, both in performance and, often more revealingly, in rehearsal.

Sadly, Knussen died in March, but her film's legacy lives on in the new EMI/IMG "Classic Archive" series. Perhaps the most valuable of the latest releases is Igor Markevitch conducts Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Wagner (EMI, *****), on which the Russian-born composer-turned-conductor, is seen performing music by Wagner (Tannhäuser overture and Tristan Prelude), Shostakovich (First Symphony) and Stravinsky (Symphony of Psalms) with his French radio orchestra in the mid- to late 1960s, shortly before deafness curtailed his conducting career.

Tall and gaunt, with a spare style to match, Markevitch (pictured) was the antithesis of the over-emoting podium showmen of today. Almost immobile, eyes flitting but features impassive, he uses a flowing right hand and a few simple, unhurried gestures with the left to elicit an extraordinary alertness and precision of ensemble and an intensity of expression that seem to arise from within the music-making itself rather than being grafted on. Such characteristics particularly suited Stravinsky, of course, and his account of the Symphony of Psalms is notable for its hieratic poise and distilled directness, all the more powerful for its very austerity and stark sincerity. (As a bonus, you also get the famous BBC film of Stravinsky conducting the Firebird suite in his last ever London concert in 1965.)

Fine as these particular performances are, however, TDK's archive series of "Great Conductors" raises the question, who wants to see a mere performance when you can watch a rehearsal and hear so much more?

Carlos Kleiber is one of the great postwar conductors, yet his perfectionist approach and refusal to accept permanent orchestral posts have lent his increasingly rare guest appearances – now measured out in years rather than weeks or months – a unique mystique. Now in his early seventies, he is rumoured only to come out of retirement when his kingsize deep-freeze runs low on food, or when he can be tempted by an irresistible offer of payment-in-kind (most recently a customised Audi). Carlos Kleiber in Rehearsal and in Concert (TDK, *****)

TDK's 1970 German TV film of the dashing 40-year-old Kleiber rehearsing and performing the overtures to Weber's Der Freischütz and Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus reveals why he is so highly thought of and sought after. Such boyish charm ("Show me you can do it once and I'll believe you for ever!"), so articulate in expressing exactly the sound or colour he's after. "Do you believe in ghosts?" he asks suddenly mid-Weber. "For the duration of this overture, please believe in ghosts!" One phrase he calls "the blackest of black", another, even darker one "The Law of Hell! Imagine you're blind and can hear it: Paragraph 1, clause 5, subsection a..." And along with the gnomic exhortations – "Sing! Forget the world! The world isn't worth anything' – he's also a born mimic. When the bassoonist, urged to play softer, dares to answer back – "I'm already playing as soft as I can" – the young maestro replies: "Yes, yes, yes. That's why I'm saying it, that's why it's a request. We are beggars. Beggars. We hold out our hat and, if we get it, that's good. Right?" And instantly he becomes a wheedling beggar himself, crying "10 pfennigs for a cup of coffee!" A DVD to buy, beg or borrow.